Shankar Ganesan

Determinants of long-term orientation in buyer-seller relationships

Marketing managers must know the time orientation of a customer to select and use marketing tools that correspond to the time horizons of the customer. Insufficient understanding of a customers ti...

Cross-Sectional Versus Longitudinal Survey Research: Concepts, Findings, and Guidelines

Marketing academics and practitioners frequently employ cross-sectional surveys. In recent years, editors, reviewers, and authors have expressed increasing concern about the validity of this approach. These validity concerns center on reducing common method variance bias and enhancing causal inferences. Longitudinal data collection is commonly offered as a solution to these problems. In this article, the authors conceptually examine the role of longitudinal surveys in addressing these validity concerns. Then, they provide an illustrative comparison of the validity of cross-sectional versus longitudinal surveys using two data sets and a Monte Carlo simulation. The conceptualization and findings suggest that under certain conditions, the results from cross-sectional data exhibit validity comparable to the results obtained from longitudinal data. This article concludes by offering a set of guidelines to assist researchers in deciding whether to employ a longitudinal survey approach.

An integrated model of feedback-seeking behavior: Disposition, context, and cognition.

This study replicates, integrates, and extends prior research on the dispositional, contextual, and cognitive antecedents of feedback-seeking behavior. Regression analysis was used to analyze data collected from a sample of salespeople (N = 310) from 2 Fortune 500 companies. The study hypotheses were supported with the following results. First, the individual disposition of learning goal orientation and the contextual factors of leader consideration and leader initiation of structure influenced cognitions about the perceived cost and value of feedback seeking. Second, the strength of the relationship of learning goal orientation with the cost and value perceptions was moderated by the leadership style of the supervisor.

Does distance still matter? Geographic proximity and new product development

Many firms rely on external organizations to acquire knowledge that is useful for developing creative new products and reducing the time needed to bring these products to market. Cluster theory suggests that this knowledge is often obtained from organizations located in close geographic proximity. Specifically, proximity is assumed to foster heightened face-to-face communication, strengthened relational ties, increased knowledge acquisition, and enhanced new product outcomes. The authors identify the limitations of these assumptions and offer an enriched model of the influence of geographic proximity on new product development, which they test using both a cross-sectional survey of 155 firms in the U.S. optics industry and a longitudinal follow-up survey of 73 of these firms. They find that firms located in close proximity engage in increased face-to-face communication, but this communication has little effect on the acquisition of the types of knowledge that lead to enhanced new product outcomes. In contrast, they find that e-mail communication leads to both enhanced new product creativity and development speed. In addition, they find that relational ties moderate rather than mediate the path connecting geographic proximity and new product outcomes. These findings imply that the new product development outcomes typically ascribed to close geographic proximity may actually be attributed to strong relational ties.

Does a Firm's Product-Recall Strategy Affect Its Financial Value? An Examination of Strategic Alternatives During Product-Harm Crises

Product-harm crises often result in product recalls, which can have a significant impact on a firms reputation, sales, and financial value. In managing the recall process, some firms adopt a proactive strategy in responding to consumer complaints, while others are more passive. In this study, the authors examine the impact of these strategic alternatives on firm value using Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls during a 12-year period from 1996 to 2007. Using the event study method, the authors show that regardless of firm and product characteristics, proactive strategies have a more negative effect on firm value than more passive strategies. An explanation for this surprising result is that the stock market interprets proactive strategies as a signal of substantial financial losses to the firm. When a firm proactively manages a product recall, the stock market infers that the consequence of the product-harm crisis is sufficiently severe that the firm had no choice but to act swiftly to reduce potential financial losses. Therefore, firms dealing with product recalls must be sensitive to how investors might interpret a proactive strategy and be aware of its potential drawbacks.

Self-efficacy as a moderator of information-seeking effectiveness

The authors assessed previously unexplored processes by which information seeking and self-efficacy contribute to self-regulatory effectiveness in industrial selling. They assessed the synergistic interaction of inquiry and monitoring with respect to role clarity and tested whether this interaction was further moderated by self-efficacy. Results indicated that the role-clarifying effects of feedback inquiry and monitoring were contingent rather than independent. Role clarity increased as the combination of inquiry and monitoring increased. Furthermore, these joint effects were moderated by self-efficacy, such that high-self-efficacy employees were able to effectively use the combination of inquiry and monitoring to clarify role expectations, whereas low-self-efficacy employees were not. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.

Buffering and Amplifying Effects of Relationship Commitment in Business-to-Business Relationships

Using an assimilation and contrast framework, the authors assess the buffering and amplifying effects of relationship commitment on organizational buyers’ intentions to switch suppliers when a relationship is strained by the incumbents own misbehavior. The results of three studies show that both calculative and affective commitment buffer incumbent suppliers against minor incidences of their own misbehavior but that affective commitment also reliably amplifies the adverse effects of an incumbent suppliers flagrant opportunism. Process tests indicate that buyer perceptions of supplier conformance to normative standards account for (completely mediate) the observed buffering and amplification effects in a manner consistent with the underlying assimilation and contrast framework.

Managing Customer and Organizational Complexity in Sales Organizations

Salespeople face increasingly complex work environments, both externally with customers and internally with various departments in their own organizations. Because managing such customer and organizational complexity is crucial to performance, the authors conceptualize and develop measures of customer and organizational complexity and examine the effects on salesperson outcomes. In line with job demands-resources theory, salespeople leverage personal and supervisory resources to manage complexity. The test of the conceptual model uses matched salespeople–sales manager data gathered from a large business-to-business firm. The empirical findings reveal that personal resources (sales self-efficacy) help manage complexity in general but create greater role stress in the face of customer complexity. The effectiveness of supervisory resources (transactional leadership behavior) is contingent on the type of complexity and the personal resources available to a salesperson. These results indicate not only how salespeople manage different complexities but also how sales managers should adapt their leadership behaviors to enhance salesperson performance.

Challenges of CRM Implementation in Business-to-Business Markets: A Contingency Perspective

In this paper, the authors discuss the importance of customer relationship management (CRM) systems in complex and simple selling settings and examine how CRM is implemented in both contexts. Specifically, they suggest that CRM strategies can be implemented from the top-down, originating from top management decisions, or from the bottom-up, stemming from the knowledge and experience of the frontline salespeople. After discussing the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches, the authors develop a CRM continuum using bottom-up and top-down CRM strategies as end points. Finally, the authors offer concrete propositions and research initiatives for future investigation.

Handbook of Marketing and Finance

Many organizations have found that the value to business operations and financial performance created by the marketing function has become very important. The need to demonstrate this importance has also become clear. Top managers are constantly challenging marketers to document marketing’s contribution to the bottom-line and link marketing investments and assets to metrics that matter to them. This Handbook relates marketing actions to various types of risk and return metrics that are typically used in the domain of finance. It provides current knowledge of this marketing-finance interface in a single, authoritative volume and brings together new cutting-edge research by established marketing scholars on a range of topics in the area.